Save My Soul
by J S Arnold
Summary: At last Damon has found the one he's meant to be with, the one who loves him for all that he is. But the cold darkness is growing, and with it the promise of death. Who will die in Fell's Church? Who will survive? Will Damon and Bonnie survive?
1. Chapter 1

**Save My Soul**

Chapter 1

It was twelve o'clock, the sun was shinning, and Bonnie was in her bed alone just staring at the cieling, imaging that the mottled surface were stars. She hadn't had breakfast that morning and she didn't think she would have lunch, because she did not feel like eating at all. The more the sun shone through her window, the more sleep tugged at her mind. It held her to the mattrisse like a pair of strong hands – like Damon's hands. That had been the last sight of him she had had before she awoke now; he had caged her between his arms, his eyes shining darkly, with blood smeared around his mouth. It had been her blood that she tasted when he'd kissed her, and it was her blood she tasted on her lips now.

The night before had begun like the thousand others before it, just an ordinary night with nothing to hint at how it would end. She remembered vaguely how excited she had been, how she antisipated Damon's arrival later in the night, because he always came... always. He would sneak in so quietly that she rarely ever knew he was close until his arms were around her. In the beginning, his sudden appearances had almost made her scream, but the last night she had felt his adoration from a afar, thus forewarning her that he was about to materialize like a dream. He had begun by kissing her on the lips, coaxing her towards the bed, and then her neck and shoulders. He had run his nimble hands up and down her sides so slowly and oh-so-sensually. She had felt his touch all through her body; she had felt it in her toes, her thighs, her stomach, her chest, her face and her neck.

Something jingled softly when she was able to raise her arm atlast, and it was shiny whatever it was. Her first thought was how pretty it was, how it glistened when it caught the slim rays of sunlight, and the second made her suddenly too aware of what she felt. There was magic in the bracelet, she could sense the pull of it, and it tasted familiar. It was like a song you have listened to many times – something you would recognise anywhere. Her grandmother back in Scotland had spoken about charms like this one once, but she knew it aswell from something else... She wondered what had happened the night before.

Somehow, Damon knew without having to ask her that Bonnie would rather have her first taste of blood using more conventional methods – conventional meaning that he would have to borrow some blood from the local hospital's supplies and he would have to purchase a straw; If this was anybody else's first feeding he would not have tried so hard to make sure it was as comfortable as it possibly could be. But this wasn't just anyone. This was Bonnie, and she was his.

He made sure the two little bags of blood were out of sight and not hanging out of his pockets before he entered the little convience store. He didn't need hysteric employees running to the police, or the local mental hospital, because he had stolen blood in his hands. That would just waste time, and that he could ill-afford. It had been fairly simple to glamour the hospital staff into letting him withdraw blood bags, but a straw? That required a little more than just great charisma.

He already knew that the employee behind the till was female, but he couldn't work out what else she was until he saw her. There was a strange familiararity about the woman, like a taste you would be able to distinguish above all the rest, and after the split second it took him to think the word he had his defences up and ready.

The witch looked plain enough in her uniform, almost normal-looking, he thought. She had a pair of in-ear headphones on and was wavering on the spot as if she couldn't help but dance a little to whatever she was listening to. He thought about turning around and finding another shop, but time was more prescious than his dignity. The name on her 'HELLO, MY NAME IS... HOW CAN I HELP YOU tag said Alice but he wondered if that was her real name.

"Excuse me," he tried, hating having to pretend like he was just a normal customer on a boring normal errand, "I wonder if you can help me?" He repeated this three times before the teenage girl noticed him standing there, but even when she did she stood there gawking for a few more prescious seconds. At last he shouted into her face, his eyes turning green, "I need straws!" he roared, and she pointed towards one of the furthest stalls at the back, her eyes as round and unseeing as a deer in the headlights.

He stalked across the store, his eyes raking the shelves which were stacked with products intended for little kiddies' parties. The straws were the last thing on the display and they came in packs of twenty-four. Maybe he would need twenty-four, who knew?

He was just about to leave the store with the overly large pack of straws when the witch at the counter stopped him with one sharp word. "Wait!" she called, coming around the desk and towards him, "You know you have to pay for those..." her voice trailed off when she was close enough to sense the waves of power rolling off of him. Her eyes narrowed, but not in anger. "Why the hell would a vampire need straws?"

When Bonnie came down the stairs into the living area she found her sister Mary sitting on the coach watching television and looking as if she might fall asleep at any moment. It was only when she was halfway across the rosy varnished wood floor that she realised that she was creeping. Her foot steps made no sound as she moved, as if she made no contact though she could feel the ground beneath her bare feet. It was strangely easy to move like this – silently, being able to hear breathing even this far away... She stopped moving suddenly and listened. It was more than her sister's breathing that she could hear, because she could hear her heartbeat as it beat slow and steady in Mary's chest. She could even smell her blood, and she imagined what it would taste like on her tongue...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mary scrambled to her feet and watched Bonnie warily as she approached. There was something wrong with Bonnie, something terribly wrong, bur she knew that it was nothing her skills as a nurse could set right. Maybe it was the way she moved that told her something was wrong, maybe it was the way Bonnie's eyes watched her, or it could have been the unhealthy pallor to her skin. Whatever it was, it wasn't something she could describe with words.

"Bonnie?" she asked, "Bonnie, are you all right?"

Bonnie was lost in a haze of desire so strong it was almost blinding. The burning hot need drawing her closer and closer was something she could nor control, and it was strong... so strong... but was it wrong? Did it matter? Again, she found that anything rational was drowned in the want to feed and the need to rip open a neck, and she replied, "I'm so, so hungry..."

Damon didn't have time to explain, even if he had wanted to, because any moment Bonnie would be waking and she would be very hungry when she did. He had seen the kind of terror the young ones could cause with his own eyes. Even as savage as he could be at times, it was always on purpose. New vampires had no control over the need to feed, no sense of what was okay to eat and what wasn't, and still no way to stop themselves if they did. He has left her for longer that he should have, but the things he had find out were things he knew would send her into a panic.

Something big and bad was coming to Mystic Falls, something that wanted Bonnie for its own, and he could only guess at the methods it would use to attain her. It was only his outstanding sense of what other predators were out there that gave him time to sense it before it intruded on his territory, but he could only hope that he was not too late and he hadn't left her alone for too long.

Mary peered into Bonnie's eyes using the pocket light she kept clipped to her Nurses uniform, searching for anything to enable her to diagnose what was wrong with her little sister. She hadn't seen this before in any of her patients, but there was a thick film-like substance over the cornea as if because of cataracts.

Bonnie's upper lip pulled back in an animal snarl and she hissed a warning, "Get away from me, Mary..." she growled in a voice that was not her own, or hadn't been before; her teeth felt so big in her mouth that it was difficult to speak at all pleasantly. Her words had the desired effect though and her older sister backtracked to her open medicine bag, not looking away from her even as she searched inside it for something. It surprised her to see that her sister had a syringe filled with a translucent liquid, but she ready when Mary lunged forward with it, her intent no doubt to inject her with whatever it contained.

She moved back only a little, but it was enough to put Mary off balance. Mary began to fall to the floor, but before she could do more than bend her knees to take the impact a pale hand clamped like a vice around her neck, keeping her aloft while the syringe fell to the floor. Her face paled considerably when at last she looked up to meet Damon's eyes, as if she knew his hand around her could easily be her death.

Damon kicked the syringe beneath the television cabinet but kept his hand at Mary's neck. There was nothing of the human Damon left in his mind as he assessed the wide-eyed woman he held so tightly. Instead, the predator was awake at last and his eyes became so dark they seemed as hollow and as fathomless as the darkest of pits. He sniffed the air delicately like a cat, but the change in his expression once he recognised the smell of tranquillizer was that of a viscous dog – a wolf. With a savage bite, he tore out his defenceless prisoner's throat and spat it down on the floor.

Bonnie cried out at the sight of all the blood flowing in torrents from Mary's torn neck, mostly because she was horrified. The part of her that was strongest, the part which she most wanted to pretend wasn't there, wanted to lap it all up from where it pooled on the ground. This was so wrong.

"Damon!" She screeched, the tears coming in hot streams down her face, "What have you done! How could you!"

He looked at her out of that monstrous face, with blood still dripping from his lips like cherry syrup, and the sight stole her breath. For once in her life she wanted to be able to pass out, be dead to the world and numb to everything that could hurt her, but becoming a vampire had taken away all the weakness she had grown to rely on. Now she had no choice but to look upon his face and wonder if she would ever be like him – so ruthless and cold. Because she knew why he had done it, to protect her, and she knew she could not be mad with him because of that, even if the other part wanted to.

"I could smell how strong the liquid was – it would have paralysed you, Bonnie. It could have killed you, it could have stolen you..." he wiped his eyes in a gesture that also cleaned the blood from his mouth, "I won't lose you if there is ever a chance that I can prevent it."

Bonnie felt sick to the core, as if this one act of violence had swallowed up any goodness she had seen before. Maybe this was the real Damon, not the Damon she loved, and maybe she had just sold her soul to the devil.


	3. Chapter 3

Notes

*The evil which has arrived in fell's church has invaded Damon's mind

Save My Soul

3

"You need to go," Bonnie almost spat out, her throat closing around all the things she wanted to scream at him, "You need to go away..." She turned and took one step towards the door and then another; even with this terror, even with his hands covered in crimson gore, it was difficult to fight the gravitational pull that had kept her in orbit around him, Whether it was just because he had sired her, or the attraction she had to him, she would fight to get as far away as she could.

Damon moved forwards in the way that a stream would travel down a hill, as fluidly as water. He touched her shoulder to stop her from moving any further away, and Mary's blood seeped into the fabric of Bonnie's borrowed leather jacket. Even knowing that his hold on her was too tight, he was willing to do anything to keep her here with him; she belonged with him, she belonged to him, she was his. He took her wrist, "I can't let myself leave you here."

She tugged against his grip, her hand slipped away from his and the bracelet fell to the floor with a haunting tinkle. She barely had time to wonder if she should try to get it back before his hand landed hard on her shoulder.

"I can't leave you," Damon told her, "however much I might want to—to protect you—I know that I will never be able to leave you behind."

She knew that the splatter of blood had only gotten on the leather of the jacket and, though it had been gorgeous, she was glad that she could slip it off so easily. The leather was heavy enough that it took only seconds for the sleeves to come off, but of course Damon could do so much more in one second. He was gone before she had the first sleeve off, and she didn't get a chance at the second because the next thing she knew she was flying.

It seemed to take forever for her to land, but when she did she wished it could have taken a little longer. She crashed into the mahogany cabinet, which held pictures of her and her family, and the glass smashed into tiny shards beneath the hands she had thrown backwards automatically. She could feel the cuts burning as if they were on fire and she held them up before her to inspect the wounds for flame. There were none of course, but even as she watched the pieces of glass were being expelled from her skin and onto her legs where they lay motionless beneath her. Part of her _knew_ that this should be impossible, but the other part was like, _You're a vampire now, stupid, this is kinda what you do_. The voice was so much like Meredith's that it was creepy.

"This isn't right," she said through numb lips, her eyes unable to focus and her mind working so slowly her thoughts were incoherent. "_This can't be right._"

Stefan was surprised to find that Damon hadn't been seen since early that day, and that was by one person only. He had thought to ask around when his brother did not try to bother him as he usually did, he thought it strange, and it had taken a while for him to find anyone in the town who had. It didn't occur to him to actively ask around until later in the day, and by then he had almost searched everywhere. All day, Everyone he asked had denied seeing a handsome young man matching Damon's description, and he had almost lost hope of ever getting decent information from anyone. He had used his powers as he always did – only a little. Maybe if he had tried to use them on the humans he might have been able to find out what he needed, but he knew he could not manage them and he would undoubtedly lose control.

A shadow passed over Damon's face, darkening his features, and Bonnie knew she was in danger. She could hear the cracked, ancient, voices of the witches in her ears as she stood there, motionless, while knowing she should run. They all told her to get away now, that her life was in the hands of the vampire stalking towards her, but she couldn't ignore the silky, demanding, male voice which insisted that she waited for him to come to her. It didn't matter if she knew, on some level, that it was his power he was using to send her this message and that he was the predator and she was the prey.

"Bonnie, I'm sorry..." Damon said through clenched teeth the moment his body had her caged between his arms, "It's not me doing this, it's..." and suddenly, like a puppet on a string, his whole body arched backwards at an angle that shouldn't have been possible for anything that had a humanoid shape. He was now bent backwards at an obscene angle, his mouth open wide, revealing his extended fangs – which dripped thickly with his vampire venom.

Meredith saw Stefan exiting a gift shop and called out his name. She had been working behind the scenes, as it were, since Bonnie disappeared that morning. She'd told Elena she was just going to the shops to buy some things her family needed, in that conspiratorial voice she used sometimes, but really she just didn't want Elena with her for this. It wasn't that Elena couldn't be trusted with important things, Meredith would never admit that, it was because she had a good hunch that Damon was somehow caught up in all of this and if there was anything she couldn't handle it was him.

She didn't know what he would have said, but it gave her enough strength to know that it wasn't _him _baring his teeth at her now. She envisioned her power as a whip, drawing it back and lashing it forwards, but the Damon-thing only smiled, his pointed teeth glinting even in the dark, and shook it off like a dried leaf, "Try that again and it will be the last thing you do, Witch."


	4. Chapter 4

Save My Soul

4

Bonnie began trying to back away, even when she knew there was no point of trying to escape. If she weren't so conflicted she knew that she would have been screaming, but it was all she could do to keep herself backing away. His eyes were the darkest she had ever seen them, and she could admit with him looking at her like this that there was nothing of humanity left. Damon had always frightened her a little, but it was the kind of fear that she also enjoyed; She loved the prickling sensation which ran up and down her arms. "Damon, no!" she shouted.

He said nothing but the sound he made in his throat was like the purring of a contented cat – or of a cat about to pounce. His every move was sensual, easy, and languid. He planned every movement with precise intent. He was well used to this game of cat and mouse; There was something about that last which bothered him, but did it matter what it was? No, he decided, while licking his lips in anticipation, the girl could squawk all she wanted but it would make no difference.

She felt a betraying ripple of pleasure run through her the moment she felt his hand on the side of her face, as if this were just foreplay to something more. She tried to hold it back, but the little shiver ran through her veins like a wildfire, and the wonderful sensation spread just as quickly through her body. She shook with her efforts to hide it, but her heart beat quickly and her blood flowed instantly to her cheeks.

Damon leant close, forcing her to press against him, and whispered about all the things he was going to do to her, his words like liquid caramel on his tongue when he kissed her.

Stefan and Meredith were about a block from Bonnie's house when suddenly he stopped and took hold of Meredith's arm. They had called to see if Bonnie was home, of course, but no one had answered. It had been just past seven when they had called, and now it was eleven and still no answer. "I hear something," he said, feeling sick to the stomach.

"What is it?" Meredith asked, stopping a few paces ahead of him and looking back. She had never seen the look that was on his face now before so she could not even guess at what he was thinking, but she knew instinctively that what he has heard just now would not be at all reassuring. She didn't want to know what it was that could cause his face to transform into that horrible, disgusted, fearful mask that he wore now.

"Something's wrong with Damon," he told her, clutching his temples as if in pain, "He—He's doing something with Bonnie. I can't see..." _but he could guess_, and with that he took off running towards Bonnie's house, Meredith trying as best she could to at least keep him in sight in front of her. She knew just by seeing the look in Stefan's eyes the moment he saw what he saw that he still thought of Bonnie as human.

"Get off me!" Bonnie squealed, trying with all her new strength to keep Damon's mouth away from her's, but he did something to her when they kissed, something that felt very good, but very bad too. When he touched her so intimately he stole more than just her energy but her powers too, as if he were a incubus come to ruin her.

"I don't think so," the creature said pleasantly, moving his lower body to rub against her, "I haven't even begun to have fun yet."

"Damon, please," she whimpered, "I love you... please... please..."

Bonnie felt him shudder against her and saw his face contort in pain. It was similar to when she had seen Tyler change shape into a werewolf, but knowing Damon well and seeing the torturous look in his eyes, she knew what Damon felt as he surrounded her with his lean, muscled, body was ten, maybe a hundred, times worse.

"Save me..." he whispered, tears falling slowly from the corners of his eyes and soaking into his hair, "please save me."

"How?" she asked, her own tears landing thickly on his skin as she leant over him, "Just tell me and I'll do it!"

Stefan broke through the front door and threw what was left of it across the room. He could see the thing, whatever it was, moving beneath Damon's skin. His brother had never been so defenceless as he was now, lying there on the floor, and Bonnie seemed stronger for the first time. Meredith followed behind him, but her expression, unlike his he knew, was as serene as the stillest water.

"Kill me," Damon told Bonnie, though it caused him pain to say anything that went against what the alien inside him wanted, and he pressed her hand against his chest, "Save me."


	5. Chapter 5

Save My Soul

5

"What do you mean? I can't do... that!" his Red-Bird told him vehemently, clutching his hand as if it were the only piece of wood left in an ocean intent on seeing her drown. "I won't do that!" she continued hotly. What he was asking was absurd, insane, and something Bonnie McCullough would never ever do to anyone or anything, no matter how much they deserved it. There was a moment in which he just stared at her with those black eyes, as if he could see everything and see nothing at all, but it wasn't him who looked out of them.

His lip pulled back in an animal snarl and Bonnie almost fell into him from the shock of it. He laughed a laugh that was not his and had never been. The sound stirred something instinctual deep within her; There was something ancient about the sound of his voice, as if she could touch it the sound would dissolve into dust and blow away on the wind. "What are we going to do with you then?" he asked, not looking at her, not looking at anything in particular. He looked up at the ceiling as if the answer would be written above his head.

Was she meant to answer? "Excuse me?"

His whole body gave a shudder, as if he were getting comfortable in a new coat or enjoying it's warmth; He was smiling as he did this, almost leering with the knowing glance he gave her. Without missing a beat, Damon moved a little away from her, turned just as smoothly and focused his smouldering eyes on her watery ones. There was enough heat in them to kindle the passion within her, but she could not ignore, nor correct, the wrongness she saw behind the burning coals of his iris – maybe she ought to just do what he asked her to do before whatever disease he had spread to her.

"Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie... what is it that make you so special..." he sighed, his smile wicked and humourless all at the same time. His feet seemed to do their own dance as he crept closer and closer, his eyes wide and inviting. When he wasn't being an ass, he almost seemed charming. "I wonder if it is your ruby-red hair," his fingers tangled themselves in it, "or your smooth, succulent skin," he ran one finger down her cheek, causing a wave of sensation to ripple through her, "or your taste?" Before she could prepare for anything, let alone an attack on her neck, his perfectly shaped lips came down hard on her's. The kiss was wonderful at first, better than she had ever been kissed by him before, but within seconds of coming in contact he ripped his lips away. He stumbled back and the sharp angle of the end-table caught him mid-thigh. His lower jaw hung open in disbelief and dawning realisation.

Bonnie thought about all the strange things she had been eating and drinking with Mrs Flowers whenever she and Elena had gone to see Stefan. They both had suspected that the old woman was adding something extra to the beverages, but they would never have thought about it if _this_ had never happened. It was in that moment that she allowed herself to wonder if any of this was real – or just a trick of the mind brought on by excessive herbal-tea drinking. But if it was just a figment of her imagination, she would have to mind what she took from Mrs Flowers so this kinda thing never, ever happened again.

Damon collapsed to the floor and began to spasm all over as if he were having an epileptic fit, his mouth open almost too wide. He was trying to say something to her, his eyes were glued to her, but all that came out was a jumbled mass of sounds that made no sense at all. "S-s-save m-m-me," he stuttered through lips that had gone dry and crispy, "K-k-kill..." He stopped shaking uncontrollably and laid there staring at the ceiling. He was so still that she wondered if he was even still with her in the room, or lost somewhere within himself.

She neared his prone form cautiously, too aware of every little movement, and too wary of what was waiting beneath hs skin. She knew a spell to rid oneself of possession, but the power needed to make it work was more than she felt confident in wielding. She was not worried about the consequences to herself, she would live with whatever price it cost her magically, but maybe she was not strong enough to cast the spell in the first place. She had heard about covens in the United Kingdom working as one to expel a malicious spirit, from Scotland, England, and Wales, but they had only been strong enough to pull it off when they all worked as one. She was alone.

"Who are you?" she asked the man laying on the floor, her eyes drying, "What have you done to Damon?"

"Took you long enough." he sneered, "I was beginning to wonder."

"Wonder what?"

"I was beginning to wonder if he was only fantasising about you, like he did Elena. But no. I've watched him for weeks to learn all I could about him, to play Damon Salvatore convincingly, but I could find out for sure how he felt for you. Until now – now I'm pretty sure he is in love with you." He tapped his chin pensively, "But do you love him? That I can't answer. I mean, it took you this long to work it out – How well do you actually know him?"

"Who are you?" she asked again, deciding to confront her fears.

"I am Damon," he told her in a whisper that she barely heard, as if to a conspirator, extending his arms in a _tah-dah_ gesture, "slash Klaus." And he smiled in a way that told her she was far from out of danger.


	6. Chapter 6  Epilogue

Save My Soul

6

Bonnie backed away as he neared her, not daring to turn around even if she knew it would make her quicker. It was dizzying, walking backwards with the sounds of feet echoing all around her, and it sent blood beating through her ears. She was sick more though from the knowledge that, unlike the real Damon, there was nothing she could say to stop him from killing her. But she just hoped that she could appeal to him if he tried anything that would be worse than death. She wouldn't turn her back on him for one moment if she could help it.

The fear in her eyes is delicious, he can feel it running down his throat like wine, almost as if he could actually taste it. Was it better now that she knew the truth of it? He did not know. And did it matter? He knew it did not. She would give him what he wanted whether she knew why or not. There was no room for argument because he would not allow it. He would try to be nice, at first, but this would be done on his terms not her's. "There's no need to be frightened, Bonnie. I only want one little thing from you – it won't hurt a bit."

That, she did not believe for one second. This creature before her might be a vampire, but he was not Damon, and he would no doubt torture her if it got him what he wanted. The real Damon, she knew, would rather her kill him than let him kill her, but how could she slay him when he was the only one who had loved her so passionately? How could she kill him when she knew that without him she would be alone? Damon didn't deserve to die, he wouldn't knowingly die, at least not without putting up a fight

"Dalla terra, dal cielo," Bonnie began quietly, recalling the spell that had been created by a coven of witches in southern Italy, "per per sbarazzare questo corpo di che cosa non appartiene ..."

Damon's eyes widened breifly then narrowed to slits, because Klaus recognised the spell at once. It had been used on him before, centuries ago, at about the same time he first met the Salvatore brothers. To hear this witch, a girl close to them both, felt dreadfully omnious. He stepped one foot towards her and stopped when the power was close enough to sting him.

"Raduno i poteri di conservare la sua anima.." the last words of the spell fell off her tongue and seemed to twist and ensnare around the Damon-thing like vines. There was a terrifying moment where the eyes he turned to her seemed to be actually burning in his eye-sockets, and she knew that she had to be stronger.

"From the earth, from the sky," she tried in English, straining to keep her voice steady and clear through the throat that felt as tight as anything, "I call the spirits to guide me, to rid this body of what does not belong..." The moment she finished the spell Damon laughed heartily and fixed her with an icy stare.

"For that, I think that I will make your death slow," he told her, coming forwards at his own leisure, aware that he could catch her easily even if she tried to run. He would enjoy chasing after her, he thought menacingly, and he might even simply _walk_ like a _human_ to extend his pleasure. It would be over too fast if he ran, and if living for as long as he had had taught him anything, it was to be patient, even if his stomach tightened with hunger.

Her fingers stretched as she summoned her powers, as if she were feeling for a thickness in the air, and little by little she felt it at the tips; it was coming, but slowly. Maybe she was asking too much of the dead witches this time, maybe in their eyes she had been assisted enough. Looking back, she remembered all the times she had needed their help, but would they really deny her now? Could they really be so cruel as to make her watch as Klaus killed her?

Klaus was silent and predatory in Damon's body as he came from behind her back, wrapping his arms around her chest in a tight bear-hug, so that he could whisper in her ear, "I would have let you live, you know," he breathed against the skin of her neck, "I would have watched over you. I still can, Bonnie, if you'll just let Damon go."

She knew what she was going to say even before he spoke the last sentance. The thought of giving up on Damon was the worst she could ever think. No way could she just forget the blissful happiness he made her feel, and there was no way that she could ever... it hit her like a giant boulder. Klaus loved her, he loved her? How could he love her after everything they had been through, and all that he had done to try and harm her and her friends? What did he think, that she would just forget?

"No!" she shouted, pushing away with all she had. "Hell no!"

"Think about it," he then went on, trying for a different approach, "If you come with me your friends are safe, I can garentee it Bonnie. If you stay at my side then no one else has to die." He saw the indignation begin to waver in her eyes as she considered what he said.

Was she selfish to want the real Damon back at any cost? The more she second guessed herself, the more she hurt inside. She wanted _Damon_. She wanted Fell's Church to be safe, and she wanted everyone in it to be safe from evil forces beyond their control. She wanted all of it but she could only have one of them. Her grandmother had always told her that the Powers were sacred above everything else, but her grandmother had not known love as she did.

"I will never let Damon go!" she said in a lower voice than she had ever used before. She knew that she would rather die. "From the earth, from the sky, I call the spirits to guide me, to rid this body of what does not belong," she gulped and the sound was audible, "to save the soul that was stolen..."

A burst of pure, untainted, bright white light errupted from Damon's mouth and eyes like thick beams of lightening and brought Klaus/Damon to his knees. He seemed to be trying to say something, probably to curse at her, but all the came our of his mouth was that purity. If she listened hard, she could hear him screaming beneath the crackle of electricity, but otherwise the power was everything. She closed her eyes and waited for silence.

She opened her eyes and stared at what was left of Damon. The light, the power, whatever it was, had done more than kill the possesor. She was crying, but it didn't matter because there was no one here to see it. She would cry for days, knowing that she has lost her soul-mate, but no one but her knew why.

The End

EPILOGUE

Bonnie sat down on her bed, hardly aware of the creases she was putting in the silken black dress that had become uncomfortable long before the ceremony had ended. She had no more tears to cry and a lump in her throat that felt like it was a perminant thing now, but as she gazed upon the journal page and the last day she would ever be with Damon she felt as though she would cry a thousand more.

How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly? The question echoed in her mind. How could love hurt someone so much that it broke their heart?

Without pausing to check what was she would fall into, she collapsed back on the bed and held her face to the softness of the pillow. She was tired that it would be a blessing if she never had to move again.

She felt something other than matrisse beneath her pillow and she sat up straight at once. Her back ached from the sudden movement, but still she lifts the pillow limply and moves it off the side of her bed. What is revealed is what looks like a christmas card, with a single red robin sitting on a snowy branch outside a sleeping girl's window. She opens the card slowly and reads the elegant script inside with sorrow coming over her in waves.

_Dear Bonnie, my litte Red-Bird,_

_I have lived most of my life as a single man, and I have enjoyed it, and had circumstances been different I would have lived the rest of my life this way. But instead I have met a beautiful young lady who stole my heart from the first moment i ever laid eyes on her. The beauty is you, and you have done more than become my love, because you have made me a better man._

_If you're reading this, it means that I am no longer with you, but know this, Bonnie;_

_You have saved my soul._

Yours forever,

Damon


End file.
